27/01/2017
NEWS STORY
We're not sure if Bernie Ecclestone - like Pitpass editor Chris Balfe - is a keen fan of the legendary 50s TV series The Phil Silvers Show, better known as Sgt Bilko - but the fact is the former F1 supremo has, on more than a few occasions shown similarities to the iconic fast-talking, wheeler-dealing, scheming character.
In an episode titled Army Memoirs, Bilko, having been demoted to the rank of Private, sets about getting his revenge.
He makes a big thing of getting the necessary equipment - paper and a typewriter - so that he can begin writing his memoirs.
Hearing of this, and knowing that Bilko knows all their darkest secrets and is sure to do his worst, those who have had him demoted set about having him reinstated to his previous rank of Sergeant.
Fact is, Bilko doesn't have to put pen to paper, for knowing that his 'victims' know that he knows their every little indiscretion, he relies on their own sense of self-preservation to put things right.
It's a typical Bilko ploy and one that the show's creator, Nat Hiken, used again in an episode of his follow up series Car 54, Where Are You?
Since Monday's seismic events, little has been heard of Bernie, however, that hasn't stopped others putting pen to paper, so to speak, on his behalf.
At a time Chase Carey, Ross Brawn and Sean Bratches have been setting out their vision for the future, some have been suggesting that the former F1 supremo - who like Ernest G Bilko is well aware where some of the bodies are buried - is to set up a rival series.
Not so, insists (B)Ernie.
"I have built the championship over the last near 50 years, which is something I am proud of, and the last thing I want is to see it damaged," he said in a statement he issued to Reuters.
"The new owner of the company will be able to carry out the administration of the company in a different way to the way I had, which was to produce financial results for the shareholders, the normal actions of a chief executive," he continued.
"This I have done for the different shareholders over the last years and also when I owned 100 percent of the company.
"I would have loved the luxury of what Chase Carey, the CEO, is able to do," he admits. "I hope the F1 supporters appreciate this as Chase intends to put money back into the sport."
Note: We are referring strictly to the iconic TV series that was first aired between 1955 and 1959, not that 1996 monstrosity of a movie starring Steve Martin.